10th PENTAX DAY (PART I)

Shooting Melania

By Alberto Dubini

Saturday

To reach the Pentax Day 2005 by car: on the highway, take
the Grisignano di Zocco way out, then, at the stop, turn right heading
Camisano Vic. Campodoro…. Anyone using the Padua-Vicenza road, at the
Grisignano di Zocco centre head to Camisano Vicentino Campodoro, then
continue as depicted above.
I’m reading the directions I’ve received by mail
while Massimo drives quietly on the highway. Directions drove us safely to
the Cascina choosed by our colleagues from Vicenza as the location for the
10th Pentax Day. At noon the sun is high and the red poppys around the road
are exalted by the sunlight. Near to the arrival, Dr. Fabio Augugliaro –
PROTEGE Photo division’s manager – is working on a yellow arrow
indicating the Pentax show location. A nice feeling, we’re almost arrived.
There it is, Cascina Dal Pozzo is coming to us along a
straight country road between trees and fields. Wide parking and fences all
around describe an exclusive environment, dedicated to us for a couple of
days. While we’re crossing the entrance I’m thinking: "Pentax Red,
Vicenza’s poppy and country party… It’s a great mix!"
The location is wide, it’s obvious that space will not
be an issue during the set-up of the show. We can see some colleagues
building a glass-case in a huge room.
A smiling man, with white curls is coming to us. It’s
Renato Franchini. A brief greeting and immediately the feel is sweet, the
feeling that local people are able to give everybody with their way of
speaking, simple, fair and hearty.

Greeting, introductions and smiles. We start to unload
all the gear carried from Milan so to continue the set-up that "Mr.
President" Dario with Maurizio Bertozzi have started a while ago. Teams
are working and, as usual, they help each other. Volunteers Danilo Dighero
and Umberto Bonaria that came from Genoa help us with the showing panels
while Dario and Maurizio are finishing putting together the glass-cases,
containing a treasure in terms of Asahi Pentax gear, kindly provided by
Fabio and Alberto from Rome. It’s truly hard to find more Pentax K-series
equipment anywhere. In addition, Arnaldo Calanca will complete the
exhibition with great bodies and glass.
The Protege stand is growing up in the side room. Gear
will appear only tomorrow, with the complete series of lenses, bodies and
various imaging instrumentation. The Protege ‘trio’
Fabio/Moreno/Alessandro works hard. In the same area, Mr. Carlesi is working
on his TECNO 2000 table, where the free check-up for Pentax fellows’
beloved equipment will take place. Hey! It’s time to lunch!
Renato, the chef, has prepared some ‘linguine,
salsiccia and peas’ with a fresh white wine for all of us twelve on a big
table. Wow! How good is the wine and how good is the light. Let’s take a
quick snapshot through a glass!

After the noon it’s time for more arrivals: Ermanno and
family, Giuseppe Monga – landscape photographer from Rozzano –
Gianfranco, other people. Time to get back at work.
Here we are taking more treasures off their boxes:
B&W and color prints for the photo exhibition. We need a method to
manage all. Ermanno, Maurizio and Dario are experts on this and in a short
time each image is numbered and ready for be hanged up. We have 121 pictures,
74 of them are BW, but we have just 99 spaces available. How to manage this
issue? The Cascina’s master allows us to use the wall too. Great solution!
So we hang up Alberto Sarandrea’s pictures on the wall. Alberto is an
expert on female nudes. His pictures are put on the wall, not without some
half-hidden smiles.
The set-up is finished. Now we can relax and look how
much this location is good for our intent. Large, quiet and fully immersed
in the country. The covered space is perfect for the photo exhibit, thanks
to its transparent ceiling, it’s like having a huge bank of 20x20 meters,
fresh and airy.

Evening. We need to get a dinner. Our friend Renato has
performed very well: Risotto with cherries, unforgettable. Rome’s friends
brought big bottles of fresh ‘sette colli’ wine. We are in the Vicenza
area, so local friends gave us the opportunity to taste some local beer and
grappa (for who dares…)
At the end, we experience some troubles with the
directions for our accomodation, so we get to the Agriturismo late. But this
is not a true problem with Vicenza people’s hospitality and fairy.
Let’s take a nap, the show will start tomorrow.